West Michigan trio earns Class B All-State basketball honors

Comstock Park's Ryan Schall puts up a shot against Catholic Central's Peter Firlik during the district finals earlier this month. (MLive.com File Photo)

GRAND RAPIDS –Scott Berry heard all about a talented young basketball player way down in Comstock Park’s program when he was named the Panthers’ boys varsity coach seven years ago.

“Everyone was talking about this fourth grader at the Courthouse (Athletic Center of Grand Rapids) who was shooting the lights out,” Berry said. “That’s where I was introduced to him.”

That player was Ryan Schall, a 5-foot-11 guard who recently completed his senior year for the Panthers. Schall, along with Godwin Heights’ Quantrell Hastings and Spring Lake’s Austin Johnson, have been named Class B All-State by the Michigan Associated Press. The announcement was made Thursday morning.

Schall averaged 21.7 points a game this winter for the Panthers, who captured their third consecutive OK Blue Conference championship and finished 21-3 overall. The Panthers won 19 consecutive games before losing to Godwin in the district finals on March 11.

Schall, who shot 43.4 percent from the floor and 82.4 percent from the free throw line, also averaged 5.2 assists, 3.9 rebounds and 1.4 steals. He completed his career with 1,046 points, most in program history.

“Ryan is one of the most unselfish basketball players that I’ve known, and he is one of the hardest workers that I’ve had the privilege of coaching,” Berry said. “I know this sounds like a cliché, but he is that guy who is always working. He’s always working to improve, and he’s always looking to soak up knowledge to become better.”

Hastings, a 6-foot senior, was Godwin’s leading scorer, averaging nearly 18 points and nine rebounds during the regular season that saw the Wolverines go 18-2. Godwin, now 24-2, will play Detroit Community High School in Friday’s 7:50 p.m. Class B state semifinal game at the Breslin Center in Lansing.

“Quantrell has a great nose for the basketball,” Godwin coach Chad Conklin said. “He does a great job getting to the basketball, and when he gets it, he knows how to finish. He can finish on guys who are 6-2 or 6-7.

“He is averaging about nine rebounds, and four or five of those are offensive rebounds a game. That goes for his knack of finding the basketball.”

Johnson, a 6-2 senior, averaged over 23 points a game for Spring Lake and sparked the team to its first district championship in 18 years. Johnson became Spring Lake’s all-time leading scorer this season, finishing his career with 1,864 points.